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MEMBER DIARY

Remember When Democrats Wanted Majority Rule?

House and Senate leaders have promised that there will be a vote – sometime this year – to block a portion of President Obama’s tax increase, which will otherwise go into effect on January 1. According to Congressional leaders, they will allow a tax increase of about $700 billion to go into effect on higher earners, small businesses, and entrepreneurs. This is despite the fact that a majority of the House – and possibly the Senate – favors blocking all tax increases while the economy is in such poor shape.

In the House, dozens of Democrats are seen as possible defectors on a potential vote to block all tax increases. And in the Senate, the second-ranking Democrat in the leadership tacitly acknowledges that there is a majority for blocking all tax increases. Listen to what Durbin says at the 4:50 mark of this interview:

“there won’t be 60 votes for the Bush tax cuts… the Bush economic policy. That’s not gonna happen in the United States Senate.”

Liberals have been complaining for years about the alleged refusal of conservatives to allow ‘majority rule.’ They have complained that conservatives have used the filibuster in the Senate to block the president’s agenda. Yet when it comes to a $700 billion tax increase that will deal a heavy blow to job creation in the United States, leaders in both House and Senate suddenly refuse to allow a simple up-or-down vote. Durbin even admits the fact when he says that opponents of tax increases must meet a 60-vote test to win.